This issue of the Economic Cooperation and Development Review includes articles by Helen Clark, Administrator of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Shenggen Fan, Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). In her article titled “The Real Wealth of Nations”, Helen Clark presents her views on the concept of human development and the approach used by the UNDP for measuring the development of a nation, including the UNDP Human Development Index (HDI) and its related concepts such as life expectancy, education and the ability to acquire a decent standard of living.

On the other hand, in his article titled “Global Food Security: Challenges and Actions Needed”, Shenggen Fan presents his views on the challenges facing the international community, and the actions need to be taken towards achieving global food security. He also addresses some related issues such as the high and volatile agricultural commodity prices and the non-agricultural factors such as energy, trade and increasing world population. In addition to these two articles, SESRIC also contributes with three recent reports, namely: (1) International Tourism in the OIC Countries: Prospects and Challenges; (2) The State of Polio in OIC Countries: Enhancing Multilateral Cooperation to Eradicate Polio; and (3) Early Childhood Care and Education in OIC Countries.